


a place in this world

by jessicamiriamdrew



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Slash, or it could just be friendship, sort of crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-12
Updated: 2012-06-12
Packaged: 2017-11-07 13:11:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/431555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessicamiriamdrew/pseuds/jessicamiriamdrew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Traveling the world and staying under radar means Bruce is woefully out of touch with popular culture. Occasionally he manages to catch a movie but he’s never really sure how old it is or if it’s even supposed to be any good. Music is much the same way. He only hears of the biggest singers and bands out there. Anything else just isn’t an option for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a place in this world

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RedShiloh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedShiloh/gifts).



Traveling the world and staying under radar means Bruce is woefully out of touch with popular culture. Occasionally he manages to catch a movie but he’s never really sure how old it is or if it’s even supposed to be any good. Music is much the same way. He only hears of the biggest singers and bands out there. Anything else just isn’t an option for him.

It’s a windy day at a market in a city—he’s not sure which city—and he peruses the small offerings of American popular culture. He finds an eponymously titled CD by a Taylor Swift and purchases it on an impulse. He wonders what it will sound like based on the cover art. He imagines some kind of country based on the cover art but he’s still so uncertain.

When he listens to it, Bruce is surprised at how much he enjoys it. Sure, Taylor Swift (whoever that is) isn’t going to win awards anytime soon for musical breakthroughs but something about her music feels pure to him. She reminds him of a time when he had a future, something bright and gleaming. In the darkness that is his life on the run, Taylor Swift provides Bruce an outlet to a life he knows he’ll never get to live.

Even without the context he could get in America, Bruce feels silly for connecting this strongly to her music. What could Bruce Banner, PhD and resident Hulk, have in common with this young woman? He listens to track four on the CD until it wears out entirely.

After the battle of Manhattan, Tony Stark takes him in. Bruce is wary but settles in. Tony gives him an expense account and Bruce desperately finds himself missing music. He buys himself an iPod and fills it with all the music he’s missed hearing over the years. Being back in an area with popular culture, his suspicions that he shouldn’t enjoy Taylor Swift are confirmed. But Bruce can’t resist this one reminder of his travels, the one positive thing that kept him going. He buys all of her CDs and extra tracks and puts them on his iPod. He takes precautions, though, he knows Tony will nose through his iPod at one point. (“Stark Property, you know.”) He renames them so they appear to be Gregorian chants-something that Tony would never, ever listen to but something that Bruce feasibly would. These Gregorian chants quickly become the most played tracks on his iPod.

Bruce walks into the lab one morning, ready to get back to his experiments, when he sees Tony going through his iPod. “You really like those chants, eh? Most played tracks on here. Maybe I should listen…” Tony ponders.

“I, uh, no, I don’t think you’d enjoy them.” Bruce stammers, face flushing, not wanting Tony to hit play on the tracks. 

“Well, you sure seem to enjoy them… Hmm, this one looks interesting.” Tony plugs the iPod into the lab speakers. He presses play and the sounds of “Superman” fill the room.

“I didn’t peg you for much of a Taylor Swift fan. You seem to be outside of her target demographic.”

“She makes me remember what it’s like to have hope.” His voice chokes on the word hope, a word he usually tries to forget.

The mocking edge in Tony’s face fades, replaced by something softer. Then Tony smiles at him. “You know, I’ve heard she’s on tour right now; we could catch a concert…”

Bruce laughs and shakes his head. “I don’t believe for a second you’d let me hear the end of that, Tony.”

“Well… you’re probably right about that. And a song called “Superman,” really?”

Bruce shrugs, figuring his musical credibility is totally shot at this point. “Just makes me think of you.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is where I totally lose all credibility but I was thinking about songfics and then I got prompted and I really have no shame. 
> 
> Specific songs mentioned are: A Place In This World and Superman.


End file.
